“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself, or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow, or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” ~ Wayne Dyer

Wayne hit it right on the head with this thought of his. We all have things that happen to us, every single day. The power is in the choice that we have, not only on how we let it affect us but more importantly how we will react to it. Looking back I can easily see that I've let too many things get me down which in turn has kept me from moving forward. Part of it is my personality, but since I know that, I actually can not let that stop me. I'm really trying to look at things from the side of trying to find the opportunity in things that happen.

It reminds me about those brick walls that Dr. Randy Pausch talks about. Things that get in our way and it causes us to ask ourselves how bad do we want to get through the brick wall and go after what we want. It sure would have been nice to have this idea earlier in my life. But the key is not that I do, I need to not only use it but I also need to help others see it sooner than I did.

I also think that it helps to have those goals and dreams in our lives too. When things happen, they can help us focus on the things that we have to do, to either let whatever happened to us help us or if we will let it hurt us and slow us down. If we have enough goals and dreams that we are chasing after I think this is a little bit easier to get around those things that pop up in our lives.

What do you think about Wayne's quote? Any thoughts or ideas to help me and probably others too? If you haven't gotten a chance to listen to or read any of Wayne Dyer's materials, I suggest you look into doing just that.